Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Spring Cleaning Carnival: Week One

Recently, I saw on The Nourishing Gourmet blog a movement to get people in motivated to do some Spring Cleaning. I for one appreciate having something to follow to stay focused, and since this blog is starting with the kitchen, I thought I'd give it a try.

My kitchen isn't in bad shape, but it's not exactly gleaming and perfectly organized. I often have the desire to get things spic and span, but my busy life and fatigue issues often won't allow me to get much done. That's why I like this program as it focuses the whole month of March on the kitchen, and the first week is all about getting the refrigerator and freezer cleaned out. I like that I have an entire week to accomplish this, at my own pace and on my own schedule.I've decided to begin to tackle the refrigerator today as I make my list for grocery shopping. Going through everything, discarding the old, wiping down shelves and drawers, and arranging containers really helps with planning meals.

Here are the "before" shots. Yikes! It's not pretty, but soon it will be.

Much better! In these "after" shots it is evident that the back of the fridge can be seen!

Lessons learned:

1. More frequent cleanings really are necessary; still I was pleased that I didn't have too many expired items to discard.

2. Don't just wipe out the drawers! Today I actually removed the drawers to clean them top to bottom and I found that something, at some time had dripped down below the bottom drawer. Now, I will spare the details, but let me just say that the words yuck, gross, and disgusting didn't even describe what I had to clean up! I am still trying to recover from the horror that I saw.

3. Baking soda totally rocks! I will be purchasing a fresh box ASAP because it's powerful odor fighting proved to keep me blissfully unaware of what was under that bottom drawer.

Aside from that unpleasant task, the state of my fridge wasn't too bad - especially since my last post on subject. My freezer is a different story. I admit, I am afraid of what might be lurking in there!